DIY: Home Decor Accessories - Ropes & Maps

Here are a couple quick and easy home decor accessory crafts that I think you'll enjoy using two simple items: rope and maps! I have tried these projects and included a few of my own pictures and some of them I want to try when I finally get a chance.

Rope:
I use Manilla rope for all of these projects and found it at my home improvement store for about $7 for 40 yards. 40 yards got me a rope bowl AND a rope vase! Not bad for $7, right?

Rope Bowl
This was a fun project and something easy I could do while relaxing in front of the TV. I followed this tutorial and found it was pretty easy when I used my pyrex bowl as a guide. I added handles to mine too. 

Rope Vase
I figured I could use the leftover rope from the bowl to cover a soup can to use as a vase, pencil holder, or to hold silverware at dinner party. One thing though is that it's a cute vase but not easy to clean with water once you have attached the rope. Aside from that mine is still going strong! I have used it for flowers and silverware.

Maps:
I don't know what it is about maps that is so intriguing to me but I love the colors, the shapes, and the wonder of this wondrous world! I have a couple projects with maps that I recently completed. I found a book of maps on half.com for about $10, a large map on posters.com for $30, and some mod podge for these projects.

Map Trays
I thought this was so much fun though I am not sure what I will use the trays for yet.... I just enjoyed doing this craft project! I found some silver trays from the dollar store that were really neat and I also found some cool silver trays from goodwill for $1-2 each. Not too bad considering I already had the map book and the mod podge (well I always have this stuff on hand)! All in all for three trays it cost about $5.

Framed Art
This one is easy peasy... I simply found some neat maps from my book of maps cut them to size and put them in some matching frames with mats. I thought the mats gave it a little extra sophistication. In total this project cost about $50 and it is a nice addition to our office space.

Map Coffee Table

My sister's husband had a nice wooden table that had some spots and water rings so they wanted to cover it up and give it new life. My sister actually ended up doing this fun craft. I was going to help over Labor Day weekend but ended up having a baby. :) It turned out great though! Here's a few pictures... My sister did mention that at first there were big bubbles and they were nervous they would not go away but after a few days she said they disappeared and the table turned out great! They already had the coffee table and bought the map print off of posters.com (they always have sales and coupon codes so check them out and don't buy anything full price)! In total with the mod podge this project cost about $40. Not bad at all!

Lots of fun stuff in this post... do you have any other neat ideas for rope or maps? Please share!

<- Kassy ->